By Chanaka de Silva
Former Customs Director Ranjan Kanagasabai, once accused of taking a Rs. 1 million bribe, is now demanding Rs. 200 million in compensation after being acquitted of all charges in 2021. He alleges the bribery case was maliciously fabricated by the former Bribery Commission Chairman and investigators, causing years of financial loss and reputational damage. The Colombo District Court has agreed to hear his claim, putting Sri Lanka’s anti-corruption watchdog itself under scrutiny.
The Colombo District Court has decided to hear a case filed by a former Customs Director seeking a compensation of Rs. 200 million for damages caused by filing false bribery allegations and filing a case against him. The court ordered that the relevant compensation case be called on the 22nd of this month.
The case has been filed by former Customs Director Ranjan Kanagasabai, and the defendants in it are former Chairman of the Commission to Investigate Allegations of Bribery or Corruption, Dhammika Jagath Balapatabendi, two investigating officers of the Commission, a businessman and the Attorney General.
While serving as the Director of the Customs Prevention Division in 2012, Kanagasabai was accused of accepting a bribe of Rs. 1 million to release containers containing used vehicle spare parts. However, on 22 January 2021, the High Court acquitted him of all charges in the case filed by the Bribery Commission before the Colombo High Court.
President’s Counsel Maithri Gunaratne, appearing for the plaintiff, pointed out to the court that the former Chairman of the Bribery Commission had maliciously interfered in this false case. Since his client had suffered severe financial and reputational damage as a result of that process, he requested the court to recover the compensation from the four other defendants, except the Attorney General.
This gentleman should be given compensation for possibly more than 200,000,000.
The former government turned a blind eye to this disgusting behaviour that left this gentleman in mental turmoil for over a decade.
The custom officers should be fined and sent to jail .
I recommend dividing the compensation that will be paid to this gentleman as fines for the corrupt officers.
All bank accounts and properties from the corrupt offices should be seized and they should be investigated as to how they managed to have such high bank balances.
Well done to the new government.
This case and the outcome will do two things.
1 show how the country is projecting itself to the world and ensure more investment flows in and secondly give every Sri Lanka hope that there country has the potential to become one of the most beautiful and rich countries in the world.
I know it will take time
Mark Hackenback
If the former customs director suffered any health issues like heart related illness due to the stress caused by such malicious, third grade acts of nasty individuals and former Rajapaksa government, as suggested above Rs 200 million is inadequate. It should be something like Rs 1 billion.
What the current government is doing is truly remarkable and commendable. They are trying their hardest to eradicate the cancer of bribery and corruption in our society. My suggestion would be to start with the obvious ones like Basil, Mahinda, Gotabhaya, Namal etc etc Rajapaksas who brought the country to her knees and Sri Lanka became the laughing stock of the world at one point. The show about Honourable Wickremasinghe is a waste. He is a mere pawn in the game as far as corruption is concerned.